He didn't change the roster, but he has certainly changed the way he views his players.

For far too long, Dumars protected his players from the kind of criticism a team that fails to achieve its own stated goals deserves.

When the Pistons lost to San Antonio in the 2005 NBA Finals, coach Larry Brown was the problem.

So Dumars went out and hired Flip Saunders, a drama-free head coach (aren't we all drama-free compared to Brown?) who would move the Pistons beyond those low-scoring, defensive slugfests Brown-coached teams were famous for having.

When they lost to Miami in the Eastern Conference finals in 2006, it was because the starters were logging too many minutes during the regular season.

When they lost to Cleveland in 2007 and Boston last June, it was Saunders' fault for not making the right decisions at critical junctures and not having the player's utmost respect.

All of those factors contributed to the Pistons falling short of their only goal every year, which is get to the NBA Finals.

But the changes Dumars made never really addressed their shortcomings.

He would change coaches. He would change some of the players around them.

But that core group of Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace would remain untouched.

Dumars still looks out for his players, but he's not nearly as protective of them as he used to be.

And that's a change this franchise desperately needed.

This core group got too comfortable not only with themselves, but with their status with this franchise. They're all aware that they could be traded at any time, and Dumars has told them this privately from time to time. But they didn't really believe it could happen until they heard Dumars tell the world, and thus opening the flood gates for trade talks with other teams.

"Will I look to make a significant change? Yeah. You're damn right I will," Dumars said this summer. "I'm telling you, I will."

That's the part of Dumars' comments most fans tend to latch on to.

But what he said afterward speaks to why the Pistons, roster-wise at least, look the same.

"I'll look to do that, but it won't be this ripping down, becoming terrible, and magically be good one day," Dumars said. "Maybe in some other sport, but not the NBA."

If all the Pistons wanted to do was make a trade, that can happen whenever they want.

A team such as the Denver Nuggets would have no problem giving the Pistons Kenyon Martin and/or Allen Iverson for a couple of Dumars' core guys.

But does that make Detroit any better? On PlayStation 3 or XBox 360, maybe. But not in the real world.

Even with an aging roster, the Pistons still are one of only a handful of teams that can be taken seriously when talking about winning an NBA title. The transfusion of young blood into the lineup began last year with first-round pick Rodney Stuckey and Jason Maxiell in the regular rotation. It has continued this year with Stuckey and Maxiell being joined by second-year guard Arron Afflalo off the bench, and 21-year-old Amir Johnson becoming a starter.

You look at Detroit's roster from top to bottom, and it stacks up favorably to just about any team in the NBA.

Few will argue against that.

But over the course of an 82-game season, with so many players in key roles past their prime, you have to wonder how much these guys will have left when the games matter most.

"We don't have a choice," forward Antonio McDyess said. "If we want to win another title, we know we have to step up in the playoffs."

But as players get older, "knowing" and "doing" are not one in the same.

Dumars is willing to gamble this group has at least one more good playoff run left in them that will catapult them past the conference finals.

That would put them right back to competing for an NBA title, which after three consecutive seasons in which expectations weren't met, would be a change for the better.